---
title: "Japan vs Malaysia — area, population, currency"
description: "Japan is 377,915 km² with 123,366,734 people; Malaysia is 329,847 km² with 35,977,838. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-malaysia/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Japan vs Malaysia

**Japan vs Malaysia: Japan is larger; Japan has more people**

377,915 km² vs 329,847 km² · 123,366,734 vs 35,977,838

Japan is 1.1 times larger than Malaysia — 377,915 against 329,847 km². Japan is 3.4 times more populous than Malaysia — 123,366,734 against 35,977,838 people.

## Side by side

|  | Japan | Malaysia |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Tokyo | Kuala Lumpur (national); Putrajaya (administrative) |
| Area | 377,915 km² | 329,847 km² |
| Population | 123,366,734 (2025) | 35,977,838 (2025) |
| Density | 326.4 /km² | 109.1 /km² |
| Currency | Japanese yen (JPY) | Malaysian ringgit (MYR) |
| Official languages | Japanese | English, Malay |
| Time zones | UTC+09:00 | UTC+08:00 |
| Calling code | +81 | +60 |
| Drives on the | left | left |
| Continent | Asia | Asia |
| ISO codes | JP / JPN | MY / MYS |

## Population density

Japan is 3.0 times more densely populated than Malaysia — 326 against 109 people per km². Density is where area and population interact, and it often reverses the impression the headline figures give — a large country with a small population can feel emptier than a small crowded one by an enormous margin.

## Practical differences

- Different currencies: the Japanese yen and the Malaysian ringgit.

## Japan

A 2023 government survey using digital mapping counted 14,125 islands, more than double the long-quoted figure of 6,852. About three-quarters of the land is mountain, so nearly everyone lives on a narrow band of coastal plain. Japan sits where four tectonic plates meet and records a fifth of the world's magnitude-6-and-above earthquakes.

## Malaysia

Split between the Malay Peninsula and northern Borneo, separated by about 640 km of the South China Sea. Mount Kinabalu on Borneo is 4,095 m and still rising a few millimetres a year. The rainforest here is estimated at 130 million years old, among the oldest on Earth.

> Neutral facts only. Nothing here addresses politics, government, economics or which country is preferable in any respect — population is the one figure that dates, and it carries its year.

## Common questions

### Is Japan bigger than Malaysia?

Japan is larger — 377,915 km² against 329,847 km².

### Which has more people, Japan or Malaysia?

Japan, with 123,366,734 against 35,977,838.

### What is the time difference between Japan and Malaysia?

Japan is UTC+09:00 and Malaysia is UTC+08:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country/japan/)
- [Malaysia](https://atoneplace.net/country/malaysia/)
- [India vs Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-japan/)
- [India vs Malaysia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-malaysia/)
- [China vs Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-japan/)
- [China vs Malaysia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-malaysia/)
- [Japan vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-united-states/)
- [Japan vs United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-united-kingdom/)
- [Japan vs New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-new-zealand/)
- [Japan vs Russia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-russia/)
- [Japan vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-mexico/)
- [Japan vs Spain](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-spain/)
- [Japan vs South Korea](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-south-korea/)
- [Japan vs Netherlands](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-netherlands/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]
- World Bank Open Data — The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/) [CC BY 4.0]